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I 



I 



THE MEDIUM WOOLED 

 BREEDS 





. 



LECTURE NO. 7. 



SOUTHDOWN SHEEP ORIGIN AND HISTORY, CHAR- 

 ACTERISTICS AND STANDARD POINTS. 



ORIGIN AND HISTORY. 



I. The Sonthdowns are so named from a long 

 range of chalky hills upon which they originally 

 pastured. 



(1) These hills extend through the southern. part of the 

 counties of Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and Dorsetshire. 



(2) They are some sixty miles long and five or six miles 

 broad and are contiguous to the sea and also to vale land 

 capable of furnishing plentiful supplies of food. 



(3) They have a dry soil and are covered with a rich, 

 sweet, short, dense herbage. 



II. On these hills the progenitors of the South- 

 downs have fed for many centuries. 



(1) They are one of the smaller varieties of sheep 

 originally found in various parts of England, which were 

 characterized by dark faces and feet, and in some instances 

 by wool of the same character, and nearly all of which were 

 horned. 



(2) Improvement in Southdowns was effected much 

 earlier than in any of the other dark-faced breeds. 



III. External characters of the original South- 

 down. 



(1) They were small in outline, long and thin in the neck, 

 narrow in the forequarters, high in the shoulder, sharp on the 

 back, low behind, flat in the rib and long though not coarse 

 in limb. 



(2) The wool was short, fine and curling. 



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